Archive for the 'Iraq' Category

A couple of us at Broken Spines read McNamara’s In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam and we’re not sure whether McNamara ought to be vilified for his role as architect of the Vietnam War or forgiven because he regretted many of the decisions he made. McNamara was part of the east coast establishment that JFK christened “the best and the brightest.” They were arrogant technocrats that thought they could manage war like a business. I suppose I could forgive him if he had really helped the country learn the lessons of Vietnam. Donald Rumsfeld’s term as Secretary of Defense bears striking similarities to that of Robert McNamara–and he made all of the same mistakes–much to the shame of Robert McNamara.

It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay.

In his PressThink blog, Jay Rosen, Journalism Professor at NYU recently posted “Why the Internet Weakens the Authority of the Press.” He begins by referencing the 1986 book The Uncensored War by press scholar Daniel C.Hallin. In the book Hallin articulates an elegant model that explains why journalists didn’t do their jobs in the run up to the Iraq war.

When (with some exceptions) political journalists failed properly to examine George W. Bush’s case for war in Iraq, they were making a category mistake. They treated Bush’s plan as part of the sphere of consensus. But even when Congress supports it, a case for war can never be removed from legitimate debate. That’s just a bad idea. Mentally placing the war’s opponents in the sphere of deviance was another category error. In politics, when people screw up like that, we can replace them: throw the bums out! we say. But the First Amendment says we cannot do that to people in the press. The bums stay. And later they are free to say: we didn’t screw up at all, as David Gregory, now host of Meet the Press, did say to his enduring shame.

Okay – I had to look up the definition. But, once I did, it perfectly describes the Madoff scandal, and two really good movies: “Waltz with Bashir” (an animated documentary by Ari Folman) and “Standard Operating Procedure” (a documentary about Abu Ghraib by Errol Morris, maker of “Fog of War“).

Here’s the definition of “anomie” according to Merriam-Webster:

social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values ; also: personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals

Waltz with Bashir is about the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Israel’s war with Lebanon in the 1980’s. And Errol Morris gets interviews with Lynndie England and the other “photographers” in Standard Operating Procedure.

It seems like standards, values, and mores have deteriorated to new lows. Or, maybe they’ve always been low, but are only now being exposed.

It’s hard to believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (or Iraq and Afganistan for that matter) seems minor now compared to the tinder box of India and Pakistan relations. But, really it’s the same core issues playing out on a larger scale. In a Machiavellian master stroke Lashkar-e-Taiba, the extremist group behind the Mumbai terrorist attacks, has further destabilized Pakistan and India and redrawn the map of the Middle East (Robert Kaplan points out in this morning’s NYT that the “Middle East” now stretches from Jerusalem to Myanmar).

Is it just me or does John McCain seem to be grasping at straws here?He chooses a 44 year old governor of Alaska that hasn’t had any national or international political experience as his Number Two?As a matter of fact, she has not even seen two years in office as Governor!John McCain has bashed Barack Obama for his lack of experience yet would leave the fate of the country in the hands of a novice if he fell ill?I find it an interesting gamble for McCain… an opportunity to court the female Hillary Clinton supporter but her stance on the issues is the exact opposite of Hillary: she is against a woman’s right to choose an abortion, she is pro-death penalty, and she opposes same sex marriages (while claiming to have gay friends) enough to support a constitutional amendment barring benefits for same sex couples, and she supports the war in Iraq.An interesting insight from colleague and State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican who has often feuded with Palin, remarked, “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?” Would a woman vote for her just because she is a woman… even if she disagreed with her politics?

After having spent the last three weeks in Beijing, I was delighted to read Thomas Friedman’s column in today’s NYT. He observes that 7 years ago China began building the infrastructure for the Olympic games. While 7 years ago the US embarked on the War on Terror. China now has gleaming new airports, roads and parks not to mention the Bird’s Nest, Aquatic Cube, CCTV tower and other amazing feats of architecture. What return will we see on our investment in Iraq? Better metal detectors, armored Humvees and pilotless drones?

Like Friedman, I was impressed by what I saw in Beijing and I can’t agree more with him that Obama needs to focus on nation building at home – not in Iraq, not in Afganistan, not in Georgia, but in America.

(Oliver Sacks wrote, “No one in the world has studied facial expressions as deeply as Paul Ekman. In ‘Emotions Revealed’ he presents — clearly, vividly, and in the most accessible way — his fascinating observations about the covert expressions of emotions we all encounter hundreds of times daily, but so often misunderstand or fail to see. There has not been a book of such range and insight since Darwin’s famous ‘Expression of the Emotions’ more than a century ago.”)

(Copyright Paul Ekman 2003, “Emotions Revealed,” Owl Books, 2007.)

A Duchenne smile contracts the zygomatic muscles of the cheek and eye, forming crow’s feet. The crow’s feet indicate that the smile is genuine and that the smiler is truly happy. It was discovered by and is named after Guillaume Duchenne.

What do the smiles on the faces of Lyndie England and Sabrina Harman mean? How do you explain the smile? Not only are they smiling, they’re smiling with their thumbs-up – with tortured men and over a dead body. The photograph on the right suggests that Harman may have killed the guy, and she looks proud of it. She looks happy. But, it’s not a Duchenne smile – there is much more to the story. Keep reading.